Career Guidance Services for Unemployed Youth: A Case of Nadia District Library, West Bengal

This study aims to know how the Nadia District Library has encouraged the unemployed youth for the preparation of various competitive examinations by providing useful information resources and services. It also assesses the perceptions of unemployed youth who are using the Career Guidance Section. Investigators have applied the survey method along with the questionnaire as a tool for data collection. Two sets of semistructured questionnaires were prepared i.e. one for the staff of the Career Guidance Section and another for its users. The study revealed that the library has created a separate Career Guidance Section in 2010–2011 for job seekers whereas quite a large number of competitive examination books, magazines, reports, multimedia information like CDs, DVDs, etc. are available. Besides these, the library also organize various career counselling programmes to encourage the students and unemployed youth. The finding also shows that majority of the participants are satisfied with the library resources, services and facilities. However, some of the services and facilities are needed to be improve from the user's point of view. Authors have also suggested some of the valuable suggestions which are discussed at the end.